“We expected there would be fall-out from the Boone decision,” he reveals. “And I totally get that. We knew there would be people who said, ‘What the heck are these guys doing?’ I think there was a certain percentage of fans who didn’t want to see the Boone character disappear, and I suspect that opinion shaped their view on season two in general.

“Obviously, we do look back and think there are things we probably shouldn’t have done, but that’s not one of them. We created an environment where we said anything could happen, and we have to live or die by that sword.”

In the wake of Boone’s demise, the newborn Human-Kimera hybrid Liam Kincaid became the focus of Earth: Final Conflict. After a few weeks, Liam Kincaid’s mysterious alien powers seemed to have made him virtually invulnerable and began to undermine the series’ dramatic content.

“That was a mistake,” admits Gertz. “It would be on the list of things I’d like to take back. We’re actually going to take that in the opposite direction in season three. [Giving Liam alien powers] really wasn’t our show and in retrospect, it wasn’t wise.”

Gertz’s objections to the over-use of Liam’s alien powers take second place to his regret over the way the Taelon agenda was finally revealed. “That was the single biggest mistake we made in season two,” he says candidly.

“It all came from an honest place,” he continues. “We felt that the viewers had stuck with us for all of year one and deserved some answers. But what we learned was that they’d rather have the questions!”

Get Xposé #37 for the full interview